re: #120 Gus 802

Apparently now with a “loyalty oath” authored by the unhinged and bombastic Glenn Beck.

It’s been since the 1980s that the GOP has been adhering to the idea that getting the votes means two things: the proverbial litmus test and pandering to the illusory base. Two problems with that and one is that it is a minority ideology. The other, and most importantly, it makes for poor governance in the 21st century.

The primary concern of Americans are thus life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As long as the GOP keep pandering to the likes of James Dobson and other of his ilk, they will only show that they are only interested in governance from the bully pulpit.

The problem in the short term is that special elections and even the midterms tend to favor the kooks - they’re the ones who are motivated to get to the polls no matter way. Primaries work the same way. In all of these cases, the fringe wields more power than in the general Presidential election. Also, it’s commonplace for the party not in power to gain seats during the midterms. So by this time next year, we may very well be looking at the kooks claiming some sort of victory, illusory or otherwise, owing simply to the normal political tides that prevail at such times and not due to any actual merit. The problem I see is that this will provide them with enough momentum to nominate a total loser - think Huckabee, or Palin - in 2012 and crash into a smoking hold in the ground so deep it will take a decade or two to climb out of.